אַשּׁוּר
Assyria
BDB lists 5 entries for ‘Assyria’ fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Proper
- A name of a specific person, place, or people (e.g. Abraham, Zion, Israel).
- Gentilic
- A noun naming a member of a people, tribe, or region of origin (e.g. an Israelite, a Moabite).
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where H804 appears in the Book of Zephaniah — 1 distinct verse. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Zephaniah
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
אשור (ʼAshshûwr) is a Hebrew name most often rendered “Assyria.” It first appears in Genesis 2:14. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 138 verses — common. 2 Kings dominates its distribution — 41 of 138 verses. For the data behind this summary, explore 138-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H804 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 138
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 138 distinct verses.
- 17 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 17 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #297
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 297 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 138 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- 2 Kings 41 verses 30%
- Isaiah 41 verses 30%
- 2 Chronicles 13 verses 9%
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 138 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 111 verses · 80%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 21 verses · 15%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 6 verses · 4%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Assyria 115×, Assyrian 9×, Asshur 7×
- American Standard Version: Assyria 119×, Assyrian 6×, Asshur 5×
- Berean Standard Bible: Assyria 133×, Assyrians 7×, Asshur 5×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Assyria 133×, Asshur 5×, Assyrians 5×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H804 across 147 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 4 further occurrences.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H804 across 147 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 12 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H804 across 146 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 5 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H804 across 149 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in BDB
The 5 senses BDB distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- Asshur or Assyria = "a step"
- the second son of Shem, eponymous ancestor of the Assyrians (noun proper masculine)
- the people of Assyria (noun proper masculine)
- the nation, Assyria (noun proper locative)
- the land, Assyria or Asshur (noun proper locative)
Word origin
אַשּׁוּר n.pr.gent. & terr. Asshur, Assyria
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from אשר (ʼâshar) (H833) — to go straight.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
אֲשׁוּר
- , interj., with (שור) הייא go on, make haste, quick! Gitt. 34ᵃ א׳ הבו לה הייא make haste, give her the letter of divorce; quick! Sabb. 119ᵃ א׳ הייא א׳ הייא. Ber. 57ᵇ א׳ צדיקי Ar. (ed. רהוטו) run, ye pious ones.
אַשּׁוּר
- (b. h.) Ashur, Assyria, Assyrian nation. Gen. R. s. 37; a. fr.—Yoma 10ᵃ; Keth. 10ᵇ א׳ זה סילק (סליקא) Ashur means (the later) Seleucia (ad Tigrim). Snh. 106ᵃ (referring to the Parthian kingdom). [Yalk. Ezek. 376, v. אֵשֶׁל 3).]
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 34 distinct written forms H804 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| אַשּׁ֔וּר | Noun, Proper | Ezekiel 16:28 | 31 |
| אַשּׁ֖וּר | Noun, Proper | Ezekiel 23:5 | 20 |
| אַשּֽׁוּר | Noun, Proper | 2 Chronicles 30:6 | 18 |
| אַשּׁ֑וּר | Noun, Proper | Genesis 2:14 | 16 |
| אַשּׁוּר֙ | Noun, Proper | Ezekiel 32:22 | 13 |
| אַשּׁ֛וּר | Noun, Proper | 2 Kings 18:9 | 6 |
| אַשּׁ֣וּר | Noun, Proper | Hosea 12:1 | 4 |
| אַשּׁ֤וּר | Noun, Proper | 2 Chronicles 32:9 | 4 |
| אַשּׁ֑וּרָ/ה | Noun, Proper | Genesis 25:18 | 3 |
| אַשּׁ֗וּר | Noun, Proper | 1 Chronicles 5:26 | 3 |
| אַשּׁ֜וּר | Noun, Proper | Ezekiel 31:3 | 3 |
| אַשּׁ֥וּר | Noun, Proper | Hosea 7:11 | 3 |
| אַשּׁ֔וּרָ/ה | Noun, Proper | 2 Kings 17:23 | 2 |
| אַשּׁ֡וּר | Noun, Proper | 2 Kings 17:24 | 2 |
| אַשּׁ֨וּר | Noun, Proper | Ezekiel 23:12 | 2 |
| וְ/אַשּׁ֖וּר | Noun, Proper | Hosea 11:5 | 2 |
| מֵֽ/אַשּׁ֑וּר | Noun, Proper | Isaiah 10:24 | 2 |
| אַ֠שּׁוּר | Noun, Proper | Isaiah 20:4 | 1 |
| אַ֭שּׁוּר | Noun, Proper | Psalms 83:8 | 1 |
| אַשֻּׁ֑ר | Noun, Proper | 1 Chronicles 5:6 | 1 |
| אַשּֽׁוּרָ/ה | Noun, Proper | 2 Kings 15:29 | 1 |
| אַשּׁוּר֒ | Noun, Proper | 2 Kings 15:29 | 1 |
| אַשּׁוּר֩ | Noun, Proper | 2 Kings 18:14 | 1 |
| אַשּׁוּר֮ | Noun, Proper | 2 Kings 17:26 | 1 |
| בְּ/אַשּׁ֑וּר | Noun, Proper | Isaiah 19:23 | 1 |
| וְ/אַשּׁ֑וּר | Noun, Proper | Genesis 10:22 | 1 |
| וְ/אַשּׁ֔וּר | Noun, Proper | 1 Chronicles 1:17 | 1 |
| וּ/בְ/אַשּׁ֖וּר | Noun, Proper | Hosea 9:3 | 1 |
| וּ/לְ/אַשּׁ֑וּר | Noun, Proper | Isaiah 19:24 | 1 |
| וּ/מֵֽ/אַשּׁ֖וּר | Noun, Proper | Zechariah 10:10 | 1 |
| לְ/אַשּׁ֣וּר | Noun, Proper | Hosea 10:6 | 1 |
| מֵ/אַשּׁ֨וּר | Noun, Proper | Isaiah 11:11 | 1 |
| מֵ/אַשּֽׁוּר | Noun, Proper | Jeremiah 2:36 | 1 |
| מֵֽ/אַשּׁ֔וּר | Noun, Proper | Micah 5:6 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H804, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
- אשר ʼesher H835 blessed
- אשר ʼôsher H837 happiness
- אשר ʼâshur H838 step
- אשרנא ʼushsharnâʼ H846 wall
- תאשור tᵉʼashshûwr H8391 box tree
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
- אשר ʼÂshêr H836 Asher
- אשראל ʼĂsarʼêl H840 Asareel
- אשרה ʼăshêrâh H842 Asherah
- אשורי ʼĂshûwrîy H805 Asshuri
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 11 — not the complete family. 4 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Bible dictionary
Public-domain dictionary articles matched to this entry by name (Assyria). A biblical name can be shared by more than one person or place, so an article may treat several.
Easton's Bible Dictionary · M. G. Easton, 1897
The name derived from the city Asshur on the Tigris, the original capital of the country, was originally a colony from Babylonia, and was ruled by viceroys from that kingdom. It was a mountainous region lying to the north of Babylonia, extending along the Tigris as far as to the high mountain range of Armenia, the Gordiaean or Carduchian mountains. It was founded in B.C. 1700 under Bel-kap-kapu, and became an independent and a conquering power, and shook off the yoke of its Babylonian masters. It subdued the whole of Northern Asia. The Assyrians were Semites (Gen. 10:22), but in process of time non-Semite tribes mingled with the inhabitants. They were a military people, the "Romans of the East."
Of the early history of the kingdom of Assyria little is positively known. In B.C. 1120 Tiglath-pileser I., the greatest of the Assyrian kings, "crossed the Euphrates, defeated the kings of the Hittites, captured the city of Carchemish, and advanced as far as the shores of the Mediterranean." He may be regarded as the founder of the first Assyrian empire. After this the Assyrians gradually extended their power, subjugating the states of Northern Syria. In the reign of Ahab, king of Israel, Shalmaneser II. marched an army against the Syrian states, whose allied army he encountered and vanquished at Karkar. This led to Ahab's casting off the yoke of Damascus and allying himself with Judah. Some years after this the Assyrian king marched an army against Hazael, king of Damascus. He besieged and took that city. He also brought under tribute Jehu, and the cities of Tyre and Sidon.
About a hundred years after this (B.C. 745) the crown was seized by a military adventurer called Pul, who assumed the name of Tiglath-pileser III. He directed his armies into Syria, which had by this time regained its independence, and took (B.C. 740) Arpad, near Aleppo, after a siege of three years, and reduced Hamath. Azariah (Uzziah) was an ally of the king of Hamath, and thus was compelled by Tiglath-pileser to do him homage and pay a yearly tribute.
In B.C. 738, in the reign of Menahem, king of Israel, Pul invaded Israel, and imposed on it a heavy tribute (2 Kings 15:19). Ahaz, the king of Judah, when engaged in a war against Israel and Syria, appealed for help to this Assyrian king by means of a present of gold and silver (2 Kings 16:8); who accordingly "marched against Damascus, defeated and put Rezin to death, and besieged the city itself." Leaving a portion of his army to continue the siege, "he advanced through the province east of Jordan, spreading fire and sword," and became master of Philistia, and took Samaria and Damascus. He died B.C. 727, and was succeeded by Shalmanezer IV., who ruled till B.C. 722. He also invaded Syria (2 Kings 17:5), but was deposed in favour of Sargon (q.v.) the Tartan, or commander-in-chief of the army, who took Samaria (q.v.) after a siege of three years, and so put an end to the kingdom of Israel, carrying the people away into captivity, B.C. 722 (2 Kings 17:1-6, 24; 18:7, 9). He also overran the land of Judah, and took the city of Jerusalem (Isa. 10:6, 12, 22, 24, 34). Mention is next made of Sennacherib (B.C. 705), the son and successor of Sargon (2 Kings 18:13; 19:37; Isa. 7:17, 18); and then of Esar-haddon, his son and successor, who took Manasseh, king of Judah, captive, and kept him for some time a prisoner at Babylon, which he alone of all the Assyrian kings made the seat of his government (2 Kings 19:37; Isa. 37:38).
Assur-bani-pal, the son of Esarhaddon, became king, and in Ezra 4:10 is referred to as Asnapper. From an early period Assyria had entered on a conquering career, and having absorbed Babylon, the kingdoms of Hamath, Damascus, and Samaria, it conquered Phoenicia, and made Judea feudatory, and subjected Philistia and Idumea. At length, however, its power declined. In B.C. 727 the Babylonians threw off the rule of the Assyrians, under the leadership of the powerful Chaldean prince Merodach-baladan (2 Kings 20:12), who, after twelve years, was subdued by Sargon, who now reunited the kingdom, and ruled over a vast empire. But on his death the smouldering flames of rebellion again burst forth, and the Babylonians and Medes successfully asserted their independence (B.C. 625), and Assyria fell according to the prophecies of Isaiah (10:5-19), Nahum (3:19), and Zephaniah (3:13), and the many separate kingdoms of which it was composed ceased to recognize the "great king" (2 Kings 18:19; Isa. 36:4). Ezekiel (31) attests (about B.C. 586) how completely Assyria was overthrown. It ceases to be a nation. (See NINEVEH; BABYLON.)
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary · Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1869
country of Assur or Ashur
Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 135 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 138 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Genesis 2:14
- Numbers 24:22
- 2 Kings 15:19
- 1 Chronicles 1:17
- 2 Chronicles 28:16
- Ezra 4:2
- Psalms 83:8
- Isaiah 7:17
- Jeremiah 2:18
- Lamentations 5:6
- Ezekiel 16:28
- Hosea 5:13
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
